Surfing the Eisbach: California Culture in Bavaria
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.14.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Photo of surfers in Munich by You don’t have to be near Mavericks, or even an ocean, to enjoy some wild surfing action. Surfers have been riding waves in rivers for years—the Amazon’s Pororoca in Brazil just might be the most dramatic example. But there are options in Europe, too. The Atlantic magazine recently covered surfing Munich’s Eisbach, a tributary of the Isar River where a standing wave has “created an enclave of borrowed California culture in the heart of Bavaria.”
Reports the magazine (a short excerpt is available to non-subscribers):
Europe has always had a love-hate relationship with America, and the paradox of the surf scene here is that it’s a grassroots movement of the Volk, against German officialdom, to make room for something decidedly un-German—a Polynesian sport in an American pop-culture mode. This doesn’t mean the surfers want to be American. One German surfer told me the Flosslände crowds were fine during the contest, but obnoxious during Oktoberfest, when their numbers swell with foreigners. “All these Americans and Australians stay in the campground over there,” she said, pointing beyond the bridge. “Then they see the wave and want to try it out.”
YouTube has video of the Eisbach, sans obnoxious Oktoberfest-goers but with obnoxious intro music:
As for surfing the Amazon, YouTube has a compelling movie trailer:
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Terry Ward 01.14.08 | 3:20 PM ET
The surf culture at the Eisbach is really a sight to see - particularly to watch these urban shredders pulling on their wetsuits in front of Audis parked on the busy city street(right there in downtown Munich) overlooking the wave.
Goetz A. Primke 06.05.08 | 2:15 PM ET
Hi,
thanks a lot for using my picture from my Flickr Account. This is very nice of you. But it would be fair of you to link it directly to my Flickr picks. And to name me with my copyright correctly.
Cheers,
Goetz A. Primke
http://www.legourmand.de/
costa rica surf 07.25.08 | 3:52 PM ET
everyone could go to Costa Rica for a s surf secion, the two shores have small distance betwen them.
It’s amazing where there are so many surfspots and without having suels. locals are very friendly and in 8 days can go to more than 13 different beaches where you can surf